Blue Zoo Aquarium Spokane — Attraction in Spokane

We visited February 21, 2021. We thought this would be a fun experience for our 2 year old daughter who has recently been going through a fish/shark phase. During the purchasing of tickets, my husband paid for “tokens” to feed the fish. I don’t know if token is just a term on a receipt, but there was no feeding of fish at any point, by anyone. The small individual tanks in the beginning were nice, clean, and well spaced. Upon entering the central hive of activity we were greeted with, “have you been here before?” We replied with a no. “Wash your hands and don’t pick up star fish.” That was about it, before the greeter moved on to a new cluster of guests every 7 seconds. Our toddler loved seeing the little stingrays swim up like puppies for soft gentle pets. There were two touch tanks beside this pool that encouraged guests to put their hands in. I picked up an empty shell for my daughter to look at and heard, “don’t pick anything up!” I apologized as I thought I was only supposed to not touch starfish. She explained that we shouldn’t pick anything up for our own safety. Especially don’t touch hermit crabs as they will pinch you. I appreciate the warning after, I also would appreciate a petting tank that did not have a risk of animals pinching my toddler. I will say, this is not at the fault of the employee. She was doing her job, and was clearly overwhelmed. She had to constantly wrangle in guests for cleaning, be a greeting host, explain rules, and watch the multiple tanks all while shouting over the loud hum of unattended children running by.

When we were able to get a space at the water tables we noticed the tables themselves were very clean and very well crafted. They provided quite a bit of fun for not only our toddler, but many other smaller school age children when they could find a small space to squeeze in between the masses of larger children that were trying to destroy the tables. This could possibly be alleviated by extra staff to monitor and spread water and animal facts.

There was a reptile exhibit that was devoid of any supervision. I was hesitant to even open the door, as I did not think it was an actual exhibit but a storage room. My husband immediately had to carefully guide a large loose tortoise back inside as he had been plotting an escape route and bolted toward the open door, as tortoises tend to do. There was no real barrier between the reptiles and humans aside from a rope, and the only sign said to keep the tortoise locked in the room. The tortoise was pacing the room finding any escape he could, and we noticed the scrape marks along the walls of where his shell rubs when he paces. I left the room heartbroken over the lack of supervision, and the clear stress that this tortoise is under.

We passed a bird room and didn’t attempt to go in. The only other employee that we saw, besides the front desk and the stingray pool, was manning the bird line. After seeing the reptiles in their stress inducing room I didn’t want to think about multiple guests in a makeshift aviary.

On another note, I appreciate the actors interacting with kids, but maybe put one or two of the barefoot pirates around an exhibit to monitor guests and interact with them that way.

In conclusion, my 2 year old had a great time, but she also had a blast riding the escalator in the mall four times. As adults, we walked in with realistic expectations, and walked out with even lower opinions. As we were leaving I asked my husband when he thought this BlueZoo was opened. He estimated graciously the late 90’s. Plot twist, it opened less than...

The short version: Whether you are dropping in or planning an outing, Blue Zoo is worth a visit. A ship-shaped play structure is nestled inside along with several aquariums, play water tables, animal experiences, a budgie aviary, a turtle, arachnids, insects, and reptiles. Our kids explored, fed animals, saw shows, revisited their favorites, and loved every minute. Feeding experiences cost extra and if you have to choose one, the rays are super fun. An enormous thanks to Gage, Summer, Austin, and Spencer for their excellent customer service! The long version: We visited summer of 2025. This aquarium is small and easily manageable with kids regardless of how much time you have or what activities you want to do. It can definitely fit in an all day mall experience or going only for Blue Zoo. Bathrooms and food are inside the mall, separate from Blue Zoo. We've been to the Seattle Aquarium and Point Defiance and if you have been to large attractions like them, beware comparing Blue Zoo to those experiences based on scale alone. Depending on the experience you want to have, you can stop in anytime or plan around their show schedule. Blue Zoo has a ship-shaped play structure inside, several aquariums, open play with water, a budgie aviary, a turtle, arachnids, insects, and reptiles. Many of the exhibits are similar to what you can experience in pet stores or the open water table play at places like Mobius; however, what makes the Blue Zoo cool is all of this is in one place plus the animal experiences you can have, particularly with the open tanks. Our family really enjoyed interacting with the rays and sharks in particular. Though small, our family easily spent three hours here as we explored between shows and fed animals. The kids (9 yrs, 5 yrs) spent extra time with their favorite, the ray/shark aquarium. There are places to sit, photo op opportunities, a photo booth, coin swirl, birthday room for parties, and a shop too. We filled out our waivers in advance but they can be done on site as well. They have a handwashing station with two sinks. We will go again to catch shows we missed (due to time of day/day of week) and for the kids to visit their favorite animals that they now know by name. I now appreciate that we have a local aquarium experience; it took a birthday gift of free passes to get here but definitely happy we went. Much thanks to the wonderful and attentive staff: Gage, Summer, Austin, and Spencer for their most excellent...

We have been coming to Blue Zoo Aquarium for three years now and this probably the last time. Today's experience was our worst experience in over three years. An employee aggressively bellowed at us from across the aquarium and then again directly at my 17mth old in my hands. The water tables were hardly turned on and therefore the kids could not operate 85% of their features. Several tanks were beyond dirty and murky, poor conditions compared to the numerous times before. We paid a lot of money to be there today, just like every other time we take our kids there and today was NOT WORTH the attractions or the verbal assault. The Bellowing Incidents: To start of our experience today an employee (male- dirty blonde hair) shouted from across the aquarium at us while my toddlers 4 and 18mths stood on the hollow wooden box (meant for toddlers) to see the free standing aquarium. Then he came around and yelled in our face to get down and to not touch the tanks. My guess is he was bothered by the sound of the viewing boxes. The offensive sound he heard was the hollow box the kids were standing on and my 17mth olds happy hop. I corrected one happy hop, BEFORE being shouted at the first time. Then right after the second happy hop, no tanks were banged on OR tapped, was yelled at directly, BELLOWED at. I didn't even have a second to correct his happy foot hop, but rest assured NO FISH were disturbed, NONE. The bellowing across the entire aquarium and directly to me and my 17mth old sure got a fish response though. This was my 17mth olds second visit here, he was VERY excited, he knew he couldn't use his hands on the tanks and his wiggles just moved out his feet. Again NO FISH were disturbed and the rude employee was beyond out of line in his conduct. My 17mth old did not want to peer into any more tanks after the strange aggressive man yelled in his face sadly. We are very courteous parents, who mind our children closely and their manners, however a 17mth old with Happy Feet is NOT a reason to bellow...